I’m looking for an imaginary-friend based story

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I’ve had no luck trying to find a good slice-of-life genre story focusing heavily on MC and his/her imaginary friend. A oneshot or short manga series (< 20 chapter) with melancholic tones would be ideal for me. I’d prefer the imaginary friend be human, but non-human, monster, or pet may interest me as well.

I’m super curious on what suggestions will turn up from this. Manhwa, anime, and other non-manga suggestions are fine by me as well, as long as the plot maintains the MC and imaginary friend relationship.
 
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It really is a nice writing prompt!

I’ve been searching for this kind of story for about four years, but so far nothing much has turned up that suited this niche interest of mine. Along the way, I’ve thought of writing a story of my own and had brainstormed a few concepts, but I’ve never had the proper time to write it out.

The RPG Maker game
“Finding Paradise” by Kan Gao
is by far the only imaginary-friend story that has resonated with me. In fact, I felt that the creator was reading my mind as I was playing it. My craving for an imaginary-friend story had intensified ever since that playthrough, so I hope some equally amazing work will surface from asking in the Mangadex forums.
 
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@SpookiLurkr I know how you feel. I've also thought up of an isekai where the MC finds other isekai'd people when they thought that they were the only one. So far I've only found one isekai that uses this rather obvious trope.

Spoiler for this aspect but not the story
 
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@DANDAN_THE_DANDAN
It’s goes to show that what may seem to be an obvious trope to one may actually be a trope rarely touched on.

@TamaSaga
I grew up enjoying reading reruns of that series on the newspaper. Super enjoyable!
 
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@SpookiLurkr It could be that I'm just not well-read enough to have encountered more of them, but I think one of the reasons that stories focused around imaginary friends can be somewhat difficult to find is because, in many cultures, the concept of an imaginary friend is considered inherently childish, and something that should be relinquished as early as possible, so by the time many find the passion for writing, film, or whatever medium they might prefer, the very idea of an imaginary friend is such a distant memory to them that it doesn't factor into their thoughts or work.

That said, I do have two examples that somewhat skew in that direction, though they're both somewhat iffy examples. One being Kurayami Dance. Written by Goichi Suda, (in)famous for his heavy use of mindscrew in his games, this manga was essentially the initial concept for what eventually became the game Shadows of the Damned. If you read this side-by-side with the game, you can see some of the influences from Kurayami Dance still present in the finished product, even though the end result was ultimately something wholly different. While absolutely not the main focus of the story, the main character DOES have something of an imaginary friend whose presence is vital to at least one of the mysteries in the story, and tags along with them for a good chunk of the journey.

The other is Mayonaka Sanpo by Nekonome Hideo. The story doesn't explicit spell out that the main character's companion is imaginary, but given the context of the story, it's not hard to draw the conclusion that they are, in fact, a product of the MC's imagination.

I apologize if this isn't quite what you were looking for, but I still recommend both manga for their quality, if nothing else.

For a non-manga medium, there's always the movie Fight Club.

I'll see myself out.
 
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Ah, I actually have seen all three of these stories before, @Sleeper. Despite their interesting plots (esp. Kurayami Dance), I’m looking for ones that are more iyashikei and less action. Nonetheless, thank you for reminding me of these.

Your hypothesis on explaining the lack of imaginary-friend manga makes sense to me, considering the common occurrence of childhood amnesia. It’s a difficult task for a creator to capture the experience of having an imaginary friend into a work that very likely will be seen by those who might not have ever had one.
 

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